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the makeover

I personally don’t think good actors have to shy away from nude scenes in films in an attempt to try to be more artistic…or even better…than actors who do nude scenes (or even sex scenes). In other words, I think there are times in films, just like in books, where nudity and sex is important to the storyline and it shouldn’t be overlooked just because an actor has an issue with doing nude or sex scenes. I include both men and women in this.

And Jason Ritter is one of the best actors out there today, and he’s done nude scenes that I think moved his scenes forward and he does it in a way that isn’t too obvious or in any way offensive.

You seem to always take your pants off when you’re in a film with Jesse Eisenberg.I guess the rule is, if I’m in a film with Jesse, I have to show my butt. It’s in his contract: I have to humiliate myself. He’s got a sick fascination with my butt. [Laughs] Maybe it’s a generational thing, but a lot of actors these days show their butts. It’s not like we’re trying to show our butts because it’s some terrible movie late at night on some weird channel like it used to be, but if our characters like to get naked, that’s representative of life. We’re holding up a mirror — to our butts. [Laughs]Pygmalion Story “The Makeover”In full disclosure, I don’t always watch much on the Hallmark channel. Cedar Cove is about all I can take, and even that’s been grating on my nerves lately because of all the sickening sweet dialogue and ridiculous background music (picture Dumbo skipping stones). But once in a while Hallmark has a film that I’m curious about and I like to check it out to see how these films are done. In this particular case the film I’m talking about is The Makeover, which is a new version of the old Pygmalion storyline. For those who don’t know the stage play My Fair Lady was also a take on Pygmalion.

Here’s part of the blurb for The Makeover from Hallmark.

Hannah and her business partner, Colleen Pickering (Camryn Manheim) don’t give up easily. For the next election, they recruit a candidate – beer vendor Elliot Doolittle (David Walton) – who is definitely a man-of-the-people. His mother Allie (Frances Fisher) is the definition of “piece of work,” as is his sister Bonnie (Georgia Lyman). Elliot – whose thick South Boston accent masks considerable intelligence – is the polar opposite of prim-and-proper Hannah.As you can see, they turned the story around and made the male lead the poor, unpolished wretch instead of doing it with a woman like they did in My Fair Lady…the Audrey Hepurn character. In this particular film, The Makeover, they even used the same last name…Doolittle…as they did in My Fair Lady.

The film was excellent, and the way they adapted this age old storyline gave it a different feel and I didn’t even mind the commercials in between. However, it’s basically the same thing I did with my gay erotic romance, My Fair Laddie. Only I did a gay version, as a parody, with two gay main characters, and plenty of erotic scenes.

And there’s one thing of which I’m certain, someone else will do yet another version of Pygmalion in the future. And then again, and again. It’s like the Cinderella trope. Most people love it.

Ryan Field is the author of over 100 published works of LGBT fiction, the best selling Virgin Billionaire series, a pg rated hetero romance that was featured on The Home Shopping Network titled, "Loving Daylight," and a few more works of full length fiction with a pen name. He's worked in publishing for twenty years as a writer, editor, and associate editor. His work has been in Lambda Award winning anthologies and he's self-published a few novels with Ryan Field Press. You can reach him by leaving a comment here, or at rfieldj@aol.com